Business Profile: The Beading Den, Putnam Valley
The Beading Den in Putnam Valley opened the Sunday before Valentine’s Day and, according to owner Patty Squillante, “It’s crazy already and I am loving it.”
“The fire inspector in Putnam Valley told my husband, ‘All the women at the office kept saying hurry up and inspect the place because we want it to open,’” Squillante said. “I had the grand opening and it went wonderfully. A lot of people came.
“Everyone in the area is supporting me. The two florists in the area sent me flowers. An artist in the area sent me paintings. People brought chocolate just to say ‘We’re so glad to have you here.’”
The Beading Den is a retail jewelry-making store that also sells Squillante’s handmade jewelry, but at its heart are the classes and workshops she teaches.
“I look at Michael’s and A.C. Moore’s websites and my prices are cheaper than theirs,” Squillante said. “I could make it much more of a markup but because it is $35 a class I figured why do that to people? If they’re going to spend $35 on a class why make them spend so much more on everything else? I keep my prices very fair.”
Squillante’s love of jewelry began as child growing up in the Bronx.
“The telephone man used to come around and they would have those wires,” Squillante said. “And whatever they didn’t use, we would beg them for it. So they would give it to us and we would make rings and stuff but my rings were always so elaborate. I would take it and wrap it around pencils and make spirals or use my father’s pliers. I had to take it further.”
More recently, Squillante worked at Michael’s teaching jewelry-making before deciding to open her own shop.
“The first month I was there, I sold 16 classes,” Squillante said. “By the time I left I sold 102 classes in two and a half hours. The store was overwhelmed because my name had gotten out and everybody was saying, ‘If you want to learn jewelry you have to go to her.’”
Squillante is very particular in how she teaches.
“I teach it the right way, the way it is supposed to be done,” Squillante said. “I don’t believe in short cuts at all. There’s a coil where you take a wire and wrap it around another wire and when you take it off it’s like a spring. There’s a machine for that that costs $12. But if you do it by hand it doesn’t cost anything. So a lot of people, when I take out the machine later on, they ask, ‘Why didn’t you tell us about that?’ And I tell them that it’s because I wanted them to learn the right way. And people have thanked me for teaching them that way first, not trying to sell them a coiler. I pride myself on that. I don’t push these fancy gadgets on them.
“For pearl knotting, they sell a pearl knotter. It costs $40. I teach them to do it with a two dollar bead ball or five dollar tweezers. I just teach the old school way, I think that’s the best way.”
Making your own jewelry can save you a lot of money and be deeply satisfying.
“I had a woman come in when I was at Michael’s,” Squillante said. “She said, ‘I want to commission you to make jewelry for my daughter and her bridal party; this is the color bead I found.’ And I said to her, ‘Instead of me making all that, why don’t you take a class, learn how to do it, and you can make it.’ She said, ‘No, I’m no good at that.’ I said, “I’ll be able to teach you.’ It was wire crochet. She did it and she was in tears. She said everyone was coming up to her saying, ‘I don’t believe that you did that, it’s so beautiful.’ She said it was like no feeling in the world. She said, ‘If you had made them, it would have been a gift. But since I made them, it was more than a gift. They’ll always remember I made it.’ Now she makes them and sells them.”
The Beading Den is located at 3 Oscawana Lake Road in Putnam Valley. It can be reached by calling 845-528-BEAD (2323) or by going online to www.thebeadingden.com.
By Larry Miles
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
